Sir Michael Fallon, former defence secretary"I think it would be nice for everybody if we started to hear about some of the IRA terrorist cases being reopened and some of them being put on trial."It's very important that if we're going to have a process like this, that IRA men are also investigated and where necessary, where there is the evidence, prosecuted as well."It would be quite wrong simply to prosecute those who served."

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson"We are indebted to those soldiers who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland."The welfare of our former service personnel is of the utmost importance and we will offer full legal and pastoral support to the individual affected by today's decision."This includes funding all his legal costs and providing welfare support."

Sir Michael Fallon, former defence secretary"I think it would be nice for everybody if we started to hear about some of the IRA terrorist cases being reopened and some of them being put on trial."It's very important that if we're going to have a process like this, that IRA men are also investigated and where necessary, where there is the evidence, prosecuted as well."It would be quite wrong simply to prosecute those who served."

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson"We are indebted to those soldiers who served with courage and distinction to bring peace to Northern Ireland."The welfare of our former service personnel is of the utmost importance and we will offer full legal and pastoral support to the individual affected by today's decision."This includes funding all his legal costs and providing welfare support."

And what I want to know is when are the Irish going to apologize for letting Fergus Mor invade the land of my peace loving Pictish ancestors, conducting cultural genocide on them and culturally appropriating their symbols and reputation.

And how about that reprobate Columba? Gets into a fight with his teacher about three chapters in a book, drags the whole of his clan into a knock-down drag out and gets evicted by the Irish for his efforts. And where does he go? Sure, he goes to Argyle and gets the credit for subverting the local religion and imposing his own on them.

And to top it off we get stuck having to call the place Scotland - the land of the Scotti tribes of Ireland.

And we're the ones that are supposed to be doing the apologizing for trying to keep them back in their own place.

Up the Picts!!!

Logged

"Wyrd bið ful aræd"

"If change isn’t allowed to be a process, it becomes an event." - Penny Mordaunt 10/10/2019

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

And what I want to know is when are the Irish going to apologize for letting Fergus Mor invade the land of my peace loving Pictish ancestors, conducting cultural genocide on them and culturally appropriating their symbols and reputation.

Right after the Americans apologize for funding the IRA's campaign of terror....

The Irish conquest of America

This St Patrick’s Day, Irish-Americans can celebrate the blarneyfication of their democracy

Mar 16th 2019

WHEN JOHN HEARNE, Ireland’s ambassador to Washington, sent Harry Truman a box of shamrocks on St Patrick’s Day in 1952, he could not have imagined he was launching the greatest exercise in soft power. Yet it is hard to think of a rival to the annual shamrock ceremony and its attendant rituals. On March 14th, Leo Varadkar, the sixth consecutive Irish Taoiseach to conduct them, will celebrate St Patrick’s Day by breakfasting with Vice-President Mike Pence. He will be feted at a lunch on Capitol Hill attended by Donald Trump. He will proceed with the president, wearing a green tie, possibly on the long side, to the White House for the plant handover. They will meanwhile hold the only annually scheduled “substantive” talks America affords any foreign leader.

This is great for Ireland. For the inconvenience of having to buy lots of green ties (the current ambassador has around 40), its representatives enjoy unrivalled access to the superpower. The notion that America might favour Britain over Ireland in any post-Brexit wrangle—a fear Mr Varadkar is expected to raise—is untenable. Yet Ireland’s soft-power triumph is mainly testament to the continued enthusiasm of 32m Irish-Americans for their roots, and to their equally remarkable dominance of American politics.

Besides Mr Pence—two of whose grandparents were born in Ireland—the Republican House leader, Kevin McCarthy, is Irish-American, as was his predecessor, Paul Ryan, and their Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell. Among the many other Irish-Americans who have served Mr Trump are his sometime advisers Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, and his current and former chiefs of staff, Mick Mulvaney and John Kelly. Mr Mulvaney, whose daughter is studying in Dublin, helped organise a tree-planting on Capitol Hill to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising.

This is, in a sense, par for the course. Barack Obama’s administration was also full of Irish-Americans—including Joe Biden, his Yeats-quoting deputy, who is expected to announce a presidential run shortly. Mr O’Bama (geddit?) also promoted his own Irish ancestry—as did his five immediate predecessors. There are a few reasons for this Celtic pre-eminence. They include the role of the Catholic church, the English language and the relatively even gender-balance of the 2m Irish who came to America between 1820 and 1860. They helped keep Irish-American communities intact. The fact that many were, and are, in political hotspots such as Ohio and Pennsylvania also boosted their political relevance and activity. So does a propensity to talk. “We do communications, politics; Italians cook,” joshes Niall O’Dowd of Irish America magazine. Yet the most significant factor, because it says a lot about the broader state of politics, is a strong Irish-American political culture, rooted in anti-elitism, outsiderism and grievance. Generations after most Irish-Americans lost touch with the old country, it is still evident—indeed especially evident—on the right and left today.

To understand this, consider that the 19th-century hordes were not quite the naive starvelings they are often described as. They left a country already mobilised by nationalists such as Daniel O’Connell, whose “monster meetings” drew hundreds of thousands. And the heavy use Irish nationalists made of America, as a rear-base and source of funds, through to the late 20th century, nurtured that awakening. The Easter Rising was part-organised in America; a lecture by Yeats drew 4,000 New Yorkers in 1904. The discrimination Irish-Americans faced at home, as the “last whites to become white”, it is sometimes said, politicised them further.

Yet it is notable that Irish-American politicians harped on the feeling this inspired, of struggle and two fingers to the bloody establishment, long after Ireland was free and most Irish-Americans comfortably middle class. “Ireland’s chief export has been neither potatoes nor linen, but exiles and immigrants who have fought with sword and pen for freedom,” enthused Bobby Kennedy. And that mutinous sentiment is as effective today—for example to display the common touch of politicos such as Mr Biden—as it was in launching the Fenian movement or hiding the excesses of Tammany Hall. Mr Biden, who has spent half a century in front-line politics, expresses it by quoting his mother, Jean Finnegan. “Show me the guy that says something about you, Joey,” she reportedly said.

Ever since John F. Kennedy drew the votes of 80% of Irish-Americans, they have been peeling off to the right: about half vote Republican now. Growing prosperity, the demise of organised labour and the union of conservative Catholics and the religious right explain this. Yet despite switching parties and objectives, their politicians retain the same old spirit and tropes. William F. Buckley, one of the founders of modern conservatism, griped about the greedy liberal elite like a dispossessed peasant-intellectual. Mr Bannon, a former investment banker who dresses like a scruffy boyo, rails against globalisation with the same resentful fury. So does the billionaire Mr Trump—whom Mr Bannon calls the “third Irish president”, despite his Scotch-German roots.A crock of gold

The style and themes of Irish-American politics now dominate American politics. Rival Irish-Americans even sometimes express their political differences in a parallel row over authentic Irishness. The Catholic overseers of the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York barred gay Irish-Americans until recently. Progressive Irish-Americans hammer restrictionists like Mr Bannon for betraying their migrant history. This might be considered the final stage of the Irish triumph in America: the blarneyfication of its democracy.

And as that phrase suggests, it should be viewed cautiously, because politicians like Mr Biden and Mr Bannon are not only resorting to a proud political tradition to describe new problems. They have also identified in Irish-American political methods a time-worn means of self-promotion. As a rule of thumb, the more Irish a multi-generation Irish-American politician sounds, the more scepticism he or she warrants.

Remember when the GWOT (Tm) was declared? I anticipated a lot of green doors getting kicked in and bad people dragged from their beds. Alas, no, apparently there are "TERRORISTS", and then there are freedom fighters, trying to free a country which regularly votes not to be freed by them.

Logged

Apparently, a "USUAL SUSPECT"

“In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility; but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage.”

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats

I was based at RM CONDOR for two years with 45 Cdo, which meant that I actually spent a total of about 9 months in the accommodation, and it was one of the most run down barracks I've ever seen, which says alot - being a PARA. I actually had to run my one burner Peak 1 mountain stove in my room one winter so the windows would unfreeze to the point where they could be opened (no heat/smoke detectors, so no worries there of course).

We didn't mind because we couldn't identify any big holes in the walls or anything, so it was slightly better than living under a basha, and they paid us back our food and accommodation charges as it was officially rated as 'sub-standard'.

Unless they went through a major renovation since my time there I can only assume that this disaster counts as an improvement .

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"The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier." Napoleon

British SAS hero 'takes out 30 ISIS fighters with a grenade launcher' during the jihadis' desperate last stand

SAS troops working alongside Kurdish forces were in hand to hand combat Specially adapted Army Landrover operator fired six grenades at the ISIS target Operation was part of the bloody final frontier of the conflict that ended today

British military launches probe after video emerges of soldiers using image of Jeremy Corbyn as target practice

By Lucia I. Suarez Sang | Fox News

The British military launched an investigation Wednesday after a video emerged on social media purportedly showing soldiers using a picture of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for target practice.

The video, which first appeared on Snapchat and was verified by the military, shows members of the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan shooting at a target. Once the soldiers are done shooting, the image shifts to their target – a large picture of Corbyn, Britain’s main opposition leader. ...

Squaddie dubbed 'Army's own Billy Elliott' who kept his passion for ballet VERY well hidden from colleagues takes leave from the Queen's Royal Dragoons to star in show about soldiers- Queen's Dragoon Guards trooper Alex Smith, 22, is also a trained dancer- Kept his talents hidden from military colleagues for two years- He is currently on leave performing in 5 Soldiers, and has been cast in a follow up 'intense athletic dance show' 10 Soldiers- The show premieres at the Birmingham Hippodrome on May 21

By WILLIAM COLE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 21:07 EDT, 3 April 2019

For two years, Alex Smith kept his talents a secret from his fellow soldiers in the Queen's Dragoon Guards.

The 22-year-old trooper from South Wales, though skilled in military combat, was trained in an altogether different profession.

But now for the first time since joining the Army, Smith will showcase his passion for dance on stage, in a show about soldiers.

Having studied ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary dance before deciding to join the Army three years ago, Smith thought he had 'closed that chapter' in his life.

But after seeing a performance of dance show '5 Soldiers' online, he began to reconsider his previous calling. ...

There was a Sgt in 1 PARA who had trained with some London based ballet company or other, where he had met his wife. He (and his wife) ran some of us 'tough as nails paratroopers' through a ballet dancer's bog standard training routine, for only an hour.

I think I saw real tears on some faces. Personally, I was focused on trying not to vomit. There were no more jokes about ballet dancers after that.

Logged

"The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier." Napoleon

There was a Sgt in 1 PARA who had trained with some London based ballet company or other, where he had met his wife. He (and his wife) ran some of us 'tough as nails paratroopers' through a ballet dancer's bog standard training routine, for only an hour.

I think I saw real tears on some faces. Personally, I was focused on trying not to vomit. There were no more jokes about ballet dancers after that.

That reminds me of our regimental water polo team back in 2nd Horse. Every morning instead of PT we would do water based training--like swim two lengths, pull yourself out, do ten push ups, repeat ten times--but nonetheless had us all written off as the wusses of the regiment.

One day one of our troop commanders decided he was too hung over for PT and joined us in our routine. Half way through there was so much puke floating on the water that we had to cancel that day while they cleaned and sterilized the pool.

"We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;"

Col Palmer gave evidence in 2018 at the trial of 18-year-old Ahmed Hassan in the Old Bailey, which led to his conviction and imprisonment for life.

"My instinct on the day was to stand firm in the chaos, step up and try to do the right thing. I believe that my actions represent the values of British soldiers which are deeply woven in to our DNA," he said. He said he had been motivated by the members of the British public on the train that day. "It was witnessing their horror which gave me the courage to act."